Lyft accuses Uber of crossing multiple lines

Re/code Chinese station March 17 report

In the U.S. mobile travel market, Uber and Lyft become a pair of opponents. In the Monday Southwest Congress of the United States (focusing on topics such as technology, music, film, etc.), Lyft said two companies would also fight a lawsuit over the clash of business secrets from executives leaving, and said Lyft and Uber were completely different in their business operations and corporate philosophies.

The statement was made by Lyft CEO Rogan Green (Logangreen). Obviously, in any occasion, the fierce competition between Uber and Lyft is a topic that cannot be bypassed.

Uber has now entered the world's 300 cities, while Lyft focused on the U.S. market, although the market positioning slightly different, but the previous two companies have had a series of contradictions and disputes. Uber, for example, has paid Lyft's drivers hundreds of of dollars in bonuses to encourage them to Uber.

In addition, according to allegations, Uber employees have deliberately through the mobile phone to Lyft driver taxi, and then "put pigeons", so that Lyft drivers suffered losses.

"Uber has crossed a number of lines and there is a lawsuit between us," Green said at the south-western Convention. ”

It is said that earlier Lyft company an executive defected to the Uber company, but took away a number of trade secrets, but the specific case is still unknown.

On the stage, Green also accused Uber plagiarism Lyft a number of business innovations, such as Lyft first launched the Common People car carpool service, then Uber also launched a similar "UberX" service, in addition to Lyft has launched a driver along the way to pull more than one passenger "lyftline" service, Subsequently Uber also followed, launched the "UberPool" service.

For ordinary travelers, the services of the Uber and Lyft two companies are basically identical. And Green says Lyft is looking for differentiation, and Uber keep the difference and distance.

Lyft and Uber are very different in terms of operating ideas, says Mr Green, and Lyft is not trying to change the traditional taxi industry, but to reduce the number of private cars on the streets.

"We have a totally different business vision for the world, and we're operating differently," Green said. Uber's original corporate motto was "Everyone's personal driver," but most people were unable to hire a private driver, and what we did was continue to innovate and let the price of travel fall further. ”

Although it's difficult to make a difference in the product, Green's signal is obvious-we don't want to do the same thing with Uber.

At the time of Green's speech, an American technology news website reported that Lyft was still unable to make a profit this year. Green did not give a timetable for when it would make a profit, but said Lyft has been profitable in several cities, including San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Just last week, Lyft completed a new round of financing, a total of 530 million U.S. dollars, including the company is Japan's E-commerce giant Lotte Group, in the financing, Lyft's valuation reached 3 billion U.S. dollars (Uber current valuation of 41 billion U.S. dollars).

What is the purpose of financing more than $500 million? Green said the future will attract more drivers and passengers to join the Lyft platform. For new passengers, Lyft will provide free rides, and Lyft will also offer a special entry bonus of $1000 for new drivers.

Lyft's most important business is to allow ordinary private car owners to use their leisure time to pick up guests and earn extra money. In this business, Mr Green says, almost every pick-up and Lyft is profitable.

Compared with Uber, Lyft in the internationalization of the formation of soft rib. It is reported that, with the huge investment of Lotte Group, in 2015 years, Lyft may be the first time in cities outside the United States to provide services.

It is worth mentioning that the Chinese Alibaba Group has previously taken a stake in Lyft. Morning）